Samsung Steps Into Gaming Arena with Notebook Odyssey 15

Samsung is throwing its hat into a very competitive ring: gaming laptops. The Notebook Odyssey 15 is the company’s latest attempt to break into that sphere, with specs aimed at everyday gamers and the low end of the market.

First displayed at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, the Odyssey will launch on Feb. 15 at $1,199.

Key Specs

The Odyssey will run on a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU and 16GB of RAM (upgradable to 32GB). That’s enough for today’s games, but it’s not going to be a virtual reality powerhouse. It has a 15.6-inch 1080p screen; for storage, you’ll get a 128GB PCIe SSD and a 1TB HDD.

Samsung reps also showed us a 17-inch model that had a mechanical keyboard with macro keys and RGB backlighting. But they declined to tell us which GPU it used, how much it will cost or a firm release date.

Why You Should Care

Besides Samsung’s decision to launch a new gaming line (adding some much-needed variety to its lineup), the Notebook Odyssey has one really interesting focus: cooling. A large portion of the bottom of the laptop is comprised of Samsung’s HexaFlow ventilation, which sucks up cool air and blow hot air out of the back of the laptop. We didn’t see it in action, but we’ll definitely put it through its paces on our heat test when we get it in our labs.

Price and Availability

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey 15 will release on Feb. 15 for $1,199. A 17.3-inch model will release later, but Samsung declined to provide a price or a release date.

Hands-on Impressions and Outlook

The Odyssey 15 felt like it was built solidly, although the keyboard seemed a bit flat. I didn’t like the white color option, but thought that it looked nice, if plain, in black. I was thrown off by a visual flourish that makes the touchpad look far larger than it actually is. I didn’t get to try playing a game on the laptop, but asking $1,199 for a GTX 1050 GPU is a lot based on competitors with similar specs we’ve seen at CES, so Samsung will have to wow with other features.